The animal inside

摘要

A lion lies asleep atop a glass roof inside a wire enclosure. Beneath the glass, within an enclosed walkway, tourists lift their smartphones and snap photos of the torpid feline. What do they see when they look at it - a magnificent beast, or a cowed one, disconnected from its natural world? Questions about what we really see when we look at animals run throughout Bestiaire, a strange and unsettling documentary directed by Canadian Denis Cote. Awarded a Special Jury Prize at the 2012 Environmental Film Festival at Yale, held in New Haven, Connecticut, Bestiaire continually confounds the viewer, undermining our understanding of what it means to be wild, as it reflects our own confined lives.